EF2 tornado in Aransas County, Texas

An NWS survey team concluded a tornado touched down 4 miles west of Rockport. The tornado was on the ground for roughly 3.75 miles, traveling southeast and ending near Bypass 35 and 16th streets. The maximum wind speed was estimated at 120 mph, an EF-2, and had a maximum width of almost 3/10 of a mile. Several homes were damaged, an RV flipped, and 4 boats damaged. A home weather station recorded a peak wind gust to 103 mph before failing. Over 20 large tension poles were snapped completely off along Hwy 1069. Hundreds of trees and tree limbs were snapped. Vehicles at a salvage yard were moved several yards, and a garage was completely destroyed. An 18 wheeler was flipped over along Bypass 35.

During the late afternoon on June 2, 2010, thunderstorms developed over central Texas and the Sierra Madre of Mexico. A very unstable air mass was present over South Texas (CAPE values from 4500 to 5500 J/kg). At 7 pm CDT, the first line of thunderstorms entered the Rio Grande Valley and produced hail up to the size of nickels, localized flooding and strong winds. The second line of thunderstorms extended across much of Central Texas and began accelerating and tracking southward from Tilden to Goliad by late in the evening. The two lines of thunderstorms merged around Tilden and Choke Canyon Reservoir near 1000 pm CDT causing intensification to the convective complex of storms. This was evident by severe storms over Live Oak and Bee counties with increased reflectivity and cloud to ground lightning between 1030 and 1100 pm CDT. At the same time, the northern

line of thunderstorms continued through the Victoria Crossroads area and slowly weakened.

The strongest portion of the solid line of thunderstorms continued southeastward into the central Coastal Bend. Reports of trees down and power outages increased from along I-37 to Corpus Christi from the most intense portion of the line of thunderstorms. WSR-88D detected small areas of rotation over Aransas, San Patricio and Nueces Counties between 1100 and midnight CDT when tornado warnings were issued. Wind gusts of 60 mph were common from automated weather stations as the storms slammed the lower Coastal Bend. Power outages from the wind were significant by midnight and there were many reports of trees and power lines down, and rescue operations for recreational trailers that were tipped over on the base of Navy Corpus Christi and a flipped 18-wheeler. In this area, automated sensors measured wind as high as 80 mph. The lightning was intense and continuous

at times, which caused additional damage to a few structures. The line of thunderstorms produced widespread 1 to 2 inches of rain across South Texas with locally higher amounts. Total cloud to ground lightning strikes observed by

the National Lightning Detection Network were near 38,000 from 800 pm to 200 am CDT. In Nueces County up to 31,000 residence had interruption to their power according to AEP.